About this app
What Lower does
Lower is the DIY property-tax-appeal workbench for US homeowners. About 60% of US homes are over-assessed by their county; the average appellant saves $500–$3,000 a year in property tax. Services like Ownwell will take a third of that for the next three years. Lower gives you the same workflow in your pocket and lets you keep all of it. What ships in v1: — Assessment scanner: snap a photo of the assessment notice from your county. Lower runs on-device Vision OCR to pull out parcel ID, assessed value, taxable value, mill rate, and the appeal deadline. Everything is editable. — Overassessment calculator: enter what your home should actually be worth — by typing the FMV directly, or by entering recent comparable sales nearby. Lower computes overassessment %, estimated annual savings, and projected 3-year savings. — Comparable sales worksheet: add up to a dozen nearby recent sales. Lower auto-computes price-per-sqft, weights closer comparables higher, suggests an adjusted FMV, and exports the table into your appeal packet. — Evidence vault: photograph defects (water damage, cracks, deferred maintenance) and tag them. Each photo carries a caption that flows into the appeal letter as supporting evidence. — Appeal letter generator: 5 bundled state-specific templates (CA, TX, NY, FL, IL — covering ~45% of US homeowners). Lower stitches your data, comparables, and evidence captions into a single PDF, ready to print or email to your county assessor. — Deadline tracker: appeal deadlines, hearing dates, and post-decision follow-ups. Local UNUserNotificationCenter reminders at T-30, T-7, and T-1 days. — State-specific tips: built-in summary of the typical appeal window, the form your county will likely require, and the realistic reduction range homeowners win in that state. Pulled from public-domain state law summaries shipped in the bundle. — Multi-property: handle a primary home, a rental, an inherited house — each as a separate Case with its own timeline. — Privacy by default: no account, no email, no analytics, no third-party SDK, no server. Photos and OCR results stay on your device. — Completely free: no ads, no Pro tier, no IAPs, no "unlock." Lower is for the homeowner who suspects the county got it wrong, wants to fight it themselves, and refuses to hand a third of their savings to a middleman.
Features
Built to be useful, not noisy.
Assessment scanner (Vision OCR)
Tap +, choose 'Scan assessment notice', frame the page in the camera, and Lower runs on-device Vision text recognition to pre-fill assessed value, parcel ID, taxable value, mill rate (if present), and appeal deadline (if present). Every field is editable before saving.
Overassessment calculator
Enter your home's actual fair market value (typed directly OR derived from the comparables worksheet). Lower computes overassessment % = (assessed - FMV) / FMV, estimated annual savings = overassessment * mill rate, and 3-year projected savings. The savings number is the hero of the home screen.
Comparable sales worksheet
Add up to 12 recent nearby sales. For each: address, sale date, sale price, square footage, beds, baths. Lower auto-computes $/sqft for each comp, weights more-recent and same-size comps higher, and proposes an adjusted FMV for your home. Exports as a table into the appeal packet.
Evidence vault
Snap or import photos of issues that hurt your home's value: roof wear, foundation cracks, deferred maintenance, dated kitchen, drainage problems. Each photo gets a caption and category. Evidence captions are appended to the appeal letter as a numbered exhibit list.
Appeal letter generator (5 states)
Five bundled state-specific templates: California (Assessment Appeals Board), Texas (ARB protest), New York (Grievance Day), Florida (VAB petition), Illinois (BOR appeal). Lower fills your data, comparables, and evidence into the right template and exports a single PDF via PDFKit. Print, email, or save to Files.
Deadline tracker + reminders
Each Case has a per-state default appeal window plus any deadline scanned from the notice. Lower schedules UNUserNotificationCenter reminders at T-30 / T-7 / T-1 days for the filing deadline and for any hearing date you add manually.
Why it exists
The problem
About 60% of US homeowners are over-assessed by their county tax authority. The fix — filing an administrative appeal with comparable sales and evidence — is highly structured but completely opaque to the average homeowner. Existing services (Ownwell, TurboAppeal, county-specific tax attorneys) take 25-40% of the savi…
What's different
How Lower stands out
Lower is the only iOS app that combines on-device OCR of the assessment notice, a comparable-sales worksheet, an evidence-photo vault, AND a state-specific appeal letter generator into a single end-to-end appeal workbench — and is the only one that is free with no contingency cut. Ownwell is a contingency-based web se…
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FAQ
Questions about Lower
How much does Lower cost?▾
Lower is free. All features are included from day one — no subscription, no in-app purchases, no paid tiers. Everything you see in this listing works the moment you install it.
Where does Lower store my data?▾
On your device. Lower is built privacy-first: no account is required, no analytics SDKs, no third-party trackers. Nothing is uploaded to a server we control — the app works without one.
What platforms does Lower support?▾
iOS, on iPhone and iPad. You can find the latest availability on this page.
How do I get support for Lower?▾
Use the Support link on this page, or email support@allthingsn.com. We answer every message and keep responses on the same thread.
The story
Meet Lower — Appeal your property tax. Keep what's yours
Read the full write-up · 5 min →
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